Jailed PKK leader tells group to lay down arms, end conflict with Turkiye

In a historic move, Abdullah Ocalan has asked his party to ‘lay down arms’ and dissolve itself, according to statement.

The jailed leader of Turkiye’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan has made a historic call for the party to lay down its arms, dissolve itself and end its decades-long conflict with the Turkish state.

A delegation of Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party on Thursday visited the island prison Ocalan has been held on since 1999 and later delivered his statement in nearby Istanbul.

“I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call,” Ocalan said in a letter made public by DEM party members.

Ocalan wants his party to hold a congress and to formally agree to dissolve itself, they quoted him as saying.

“Convene your congress and make a decision. All groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself,” Ocalan said, according to the statement.

The PKK is deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkiye and its Western allies.

Commenting on the move, ruling AK Party Deputy Chairman Efkan Ala said that his country will be “free of its shackles” if the PKK lays down arms and dissolves.

In the first response from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, Ala said the government expected the PKK to comply with Ocalan’s call.

Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said Ocalan’s letter carries “historical importance” as it is the first time he is asking the PKK to dissolve.

This makes the DEM party “more significant in Turkish politics,” Koseoglu said.

According to her, Ocalan mentioned that when he established the PKK, “things were different and the Turkish state back then didn’t respect the Kurdish rights, but now, things have changed”.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its fight in 1984 with the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland for Kurds. It has since moved away from its separatist goals and instead sought more autonomy in southeast Turkiye and greater Kurdish rights, but groups affiliated with the PKK have continued to carry out sporadic attacks in Turkiye.

In October, the PKK claimed responsibility for an attack on a Turkish state-run defence company near Ankara, that killed five people and wounded 22 others. In response, Turkiye struck PKK targets in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey regularly conducts air attacks against the PKK in Iraq and against a Kurdish group in Syria affiliated with the PKK.

The appeal from Ocalan could have implications for the major oil-exporting region of northern Iraq, where the PKK is based, and for neighbouring Syria, which is emerging after 13 years of civil war and the ouster in December of Bashar Al-Assad.

A Turkiye-PKK peace process collapsed a decade ago.

Ocalan, 75, has been imprisoned on the island of Imrali, off Istanbul, since 1999 after being convicted of treason. Despite his incarceration, he continues to wield significant influence over the PKK and the group’s leadership is widely expected to heed any of his calls.

Ocalan’s momentous announcement is part of a new effort for peace between the group and the Turkish state, which was initiated in October by President Erdogan’s coalition partner, Devlet Bahceli. The nationalist politician suggested that Ocalan could be granted parole if his group renounces violence and disbands.

Last year, Ocalan said he could shift the Kurdish question “from an arena of conflict and violence to one of law and politics”, later offering assurances he was “ready to take the necessary steps and make the call”.

Thursday’s meeting was the third time DEM party officials have met with Ocalan as part of the peace efforts. The officials have also met with Selahattin Demirtas, an imprisoned former leader of the DEM party’s predecessor, and traveled to Iraq for talks with Kurdish leaders there.

The DEM party has had to change its name after it was repeatedly banned. Opponents say the party supports ‘PKK terrorism’, but DEM says it is calling for greater democracy in Turkiye.

Galip Dalay, senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, says if successful, the move would be one of the “most transformative events that have happened in the Middle East”.

It could “redefine the course of Turkish politics” and would also “redefine Turkiye’s relationship with the region’s Kurds in the main neighbouring states,” Dalay told Al Jazeera.